Season of Omens by John Pepper Clark

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When calabashes held petrol and men

turned faggots in the streets

Then came the five hunters

When mansions and limousines made

bonfires in sunset cities

Then came the five hunters

When clans were discovered that were not in the book

and cattle counted for heads of men

Then came the five hunters

When hoodlums took possession of police barracks

in defiance of bullets

Then came the five hunters

When ministers legislated from bed and

made high office the prize for failure

Then came the five hunters

When wads of notes were kept in infant skulls

with full blessing of prelates

Then came the five hunters

When women grew heavy with ballot papers delivering

the house entire to adulterers

Then came the five hunters

When a grand vizier in season of arson turned

upon bandits in a far off place

Then came the five hunters

When men lost their teeth before they cut them

to eat corn

Then came the five hunters

When a cabinet grew so broad the top gave way

and trapped everyone therein

Then came the five hunters

When a cabinet grew so broad the top gave way

and trapped everyone therein

Then came the five hunters

At club closure,

Antelopes slept, for lions snored;

Then struck the five hunters,

But not together, not together.

One set out on his own into the night,

Four down their different spoors by the sea;

By light of stars at dawn

Each read in the plan a variant

And so one morning

The people woke up to a great smoke.

There was fire all right,

But who lighted it, where

The lighter of the fire?

Fallen in the grass was the lion,

Fallen in the forest was the jackal,

Missing by the sea was the shepherd-sheep,

His castrate ram in tow,

And all around was the blood of hounds.